The ongoing trend toward increased performance and higher density electrical circuits has led to the development of surface mount technology in the design of electronic packages and printed circuit boards (PCBs). As the amount of memory increases in electronic systems so does the amount of bandwidth required for the processors, and resultantly the number of in/out (I/O) connections.
Sockets are commonly used to enable multiple insertions of packages onto PCBs (e.g., mother boards) or other substrates to provide mechanical and electrical connections. Shielded sockets electrically isolate an array of conductive contacts from the housing that surrounds the conductive contacts, thus reducing the number of ground pins that are necessary.
The reduction in ground pins, and subsequent reduced pin count, causes a decrease in socket loading force, resulting in a reduced requirement for socket stiffness. Accordingly, current contact designs (e.g., clip and spring designs) do not provide sufficient normal force or electrical resistance for shielded socket designs.